“La fheile Padraig sona dhaoibh!”
In other words, happy St. Patrick’s Day to you all! Yes, it’s that time of year again. And boy are you in luck. Your favorite airport shuttle service now serves 8 out of the 10 cities with the largest St. Pat’s Day parades in the U.S. Plus many more. So, let’s start toasting. Slainte!
The very first St. Patrick’s Day Parade in America started, where else, but New York City back in 1762. Repeat…that’s 1762 — fourteen years before the birth of the country. They claim over 2 million people attend every year. This year should be no different.
This year they expect 150,000 people will actually march in the parade running along Fifth Avenue from 44th to 79th, right past the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the approving eye of the Archbishop of New York. Just groups of marchers, though, no floats, kick off on Monday, March 17th at 11 AM. You can start celebrating a few days before, with a Gala on Thursday night and the Irish flag raising on Sunday. Or, you can skip the parade and head for the Irish Arts Center for a whole day of tin whistle, tap-dancing and Gaelic football.
Second best, but really first in a lot of folks eyes, is Chicago. Not just because the Chicago River turns bright green to celebrate, or that the Irish spirit is large enough to host two different parades, or that the city had a Mayor Daley (Irish father/son team) for a combined 43 years over the last 70, but the parade always occurs on the Saturday before March 17th, so the party can go all weekend long!
As far as that second parade, it’s the South Side Irish Parade on Sunday, March 16, sponsored by the folks of Washtenaw and Talman, two neighborhood streets in the community, so you can expect a very family friendly, neighborhood gathering kind of event that’s become the largest St. Patrick’s community-based parade outside of Dublin, Ireland.
Next in size would be the Boston SP Party. Now here’s where that whole New York/Boston competition thing must get its start, because Boston claims to have had the first gathering to celebrate their new Irish immigrants in 1737, twenty-five years before the Big Apple’s. Also, the parade is officially called the South Boston Evacuation Day/St. Patrick’s Day Parade, to honor the day and place when British forces were finally driven out of the city in 1776.
The parade kicks off this year on the Sunday before, but has a lot of fun athletic activities the week before the marching begins. There’s a Boxing Tournament, Bowl-O-Rama, Ice-O-Rama, and something called the Shamrock Showdown. For details, check here.
However, when you look at U.S. census figures for people of Irish extraction by state, California actually comes in Number One. You can go up and down the state partying with St. Pat revelers, if you time things right. Starting in San Diego, their Irish festival runs nearly all day on Saturday, March 15 with a giant party at the end of the parade route in Balboa Park featuring just about everything Irish you can think of, since this year’s theme is “Celebrating Irish Business.”
But if you want floats, dancing troupes and marching bands, better head to San Francisco. The parade kicks off at 11:30 AM Saturday and ends at the Civic Center Plaza for a festival of Irish art and culture until 5 PM that evening. It’s the 174th year sponsored by the United Irish Cultural Center.
Los Angeles is too spread out to have one single event. Every website you go to talks about the 10 or 20 things to do in LA to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day. Then plan a whole weekend! There are plenty of bar crawls and Irish-themed parties around town, even the famous Farmers’ Market goes all out green for the Holiday. The best parade in town is in nearby Hermosa Beach which continues onto the pier for a festival of all things Irish. The LA area could use a tourist lift this year after all those wildfires, too!
The state with the third largest Irish population is Pennsylvania. Not to keep you flying all weekend, but you could celebrate in Pittsburgh on Saturday then head to Philadelphia on Sunday. One state, two parades, and you could still head someplace else for Monday. Now that’s Irish! The Steel City parade runs down Grant Street and this year they’ve added a “Saint Patrick’s Day Dash” before hand. The Philly parade starts at 11 AM and ends at the famous steps of the Art Museum.
And now for a few different takes to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. This Year, Kansas City has its parade theme as “Irish Wit and Wisdom,” so prepare to laugh a lot on Monday, March 17. In Cleveland the parade is Monday, too, but starting at 1:04 PM, why that time we do not know. But they are giving away two tickets to Dublin on Aer Lingus. This year’s theme for Ohio’s oldest St. Patrick’s Day Parade is “Celebrate the Life of St. Brigid”.
Finally, Savannah traditionally leads their parade route through some of the classic, historic old neighborhood streets in town ending at Forsyth Park, where the honored parade marshal or parade queen turns the fountain water magically green.
Erin go bragh!, fellow travelers. Hurry up and make your reservations and you might be able to save a little green. You can always rely on GOAirport Shuttle for all your to-and-from airport trips.
As the travel leprechaun says “I-rish you luck!”
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